What the hell happened here?

While sightseeing around Metro Manila on Google Maps I found this bizarre monstrosity just east of SM North EDSA in Quezon City.

View in Google Maps

How did they get into this situation where the have this wild mishmash of irregularly shaped buildings of different colored roofs and no apparent roads? It makes me dizzy just looking at it, like an M. C. Escher optical illusion. The roofs overlap and slice through each other, with buildings ending arbitrarily and giving way to a spattering of slums.

Is there some inherent inability for Filipinos to think in straight lines?

As a remedy, I flew over to Ontario, CA, in an area dominated by business parks and warehouses.

View in Google Maps

 Ahh... much better.

Philippine High Speed Rail Map

Here's an imaginary map of a high speed rail network that spans the Philippines, connecting all the major cities from Laoag in the north to Tawi-Tawi way down south, and even the Tubbataha reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea.

This is not a real thing that exists, or a thing that will ever exist. But it is something to feed our dreams.

Inspired by the various world metro maps out there on the internet.

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - July 2013

Here's an update to the high-resolution satellite coverage of Google Earth/Maps in the Philippines. I've been making and updating a map like this for the past two years (see June 2012 and April 2011), so might as well keep it going.

Compared to the rather disappointing update last time, in the past year apparently Google's been doing a good job adding high-res coverage to a lot of new areas, including Boracay and Panglao. As you can see on the map, there's now significantly more red than non-red. Amount of coverage is now at 85.8%.

• 54.7% in April 2011
• 60.1% in June 2012
• 85.8% in July 2013

Only big glaring omissions on the map is the large swath of eastern Bohol, and the mountainous areas in inland Mindoro. The largest uncovered city is Kidapawan (population 125,447).

My Philippines Island Hopping Update

Last weekend I got to go to Cagayan de Oro for a day to attend a wedding, marking the first time I visited Mindanao, our country's second largest island. The visit was less than 24 hours, but at least I can say I've been there.

This is what the map of the Philippines would now look like if it only included islands that I have set foot on:

Un-visited islands are in very faint gray. Most of the smaller islands I've been to are too tiny to even be visible on this map.

Major islands I've visited (land area over 500 sq. km):

• Luzon
• Mindanao
• Negros
• Palawan
• Panay
• Leyte
• Cebu
• Bohol

Smaller islands, with the city or municipality they're part of:

• Siquijor
• Panglao (Panglao, Bohol)
• Mactan (Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu)
• Boracay (Malay, Aklan)
• Crystal Cove (off of Boracay, Malay, Alkan)
• Bantayan (Bantayan, Cebu)
• Malapascua (Daanbantayan, Cebu)
• Apo Island (Dauin, Negros Oriental)
• Balicasag (Panglao, Bohol)
• Virgin Island (Panglao, Bohol)
• Grande Island (in Subic Bay, Bataan)
• Maribago (Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu)
• Lagen (El Nido, Palawan)
• Miniloc (El Nido, Palawan)
• Dibuluan (El Nido, Palawan)
• Entalula (El Nido, Palawan)
• Pinasil (El Nido, Palawan)
• Vigan (El Nido, Palawan)
• Corregidor (Cavite City, Cavite)

The only large islands I haven't get been to are Samar, Mindoro and Masbate, and I don't imagine I'll be going there any time soon. Not much interesting to see there I'm afraid.

Even Sotto's Wikipedia Article Was Plagiarized

By now we all have heard enough of Senator Vicente Sotto III's disgraceful work in ripping the words from an American blogger in his speech opposing the RH Bill. Even worse were his initial denials, his continued refusal to accept responsibility, and his staff's lame attempts at defense:

• "Copying is a common practice. Why do you need to think of a brand-new measure when a good one that was not enacted already exists?"
• "We plagiarized the US Constitution. All the amendments became our Bill of Rights. But do they call us a plagiaristic country?"
• "It is public domain [...] blogs are not covered by copyright."
• “Even our image was copied from God. We are all plagiarists”

Sotto and his staff really need to stop speaking. Everyone that comes into contact with these words is now dumber merely for having heard them. It would take a sacrifice of my own dignity to even lower myself to the position of countering such a boneheaded argument. It's of small comfort to me to know that Sotto's lawyers and public relations people are as incompetent as his speechwriters.

And now here's another gem-- until yesterday, the vast majority of the Senator's own Wikipedia page was copied and pasted from his official Senate biography. (See how the page existed yesterday)

Now, anyone familiar with Wikipedia knows that it's not written or edited by any paid staff-- it's contributed entirely by the public. Anyone can and should edit the articles to work towards building a better source of information, provided they have good intentions. There was a controversy a few years ago involving US congressional staff maliciously editing articles of members of congress to add favorable information, cover up controversies, or negative information on the articles of their opponents.

Prior to the plagarism scandal erupting, a good 90% of the prose from Senator Sotto's Wikipedia article was copied word for word from his glowing official senate biography. The article has apparently existed in this form as far back as October 2010, nearly two years ago, when one brazen editor shamelessly slapped it all in there.

Wikipedia:

Prior to his entry into public service, Senator Sotto was a well-known composer, actor and musical artist. He was a prime mover in the irreversible trend toward the popularity of the Filipino singers and local compositions during the 1970s and the 1980s when he was the Vice-President for production of the Vicor Group of Companies. Among his popular compositions is the song Magkaisa, considered the anthem of the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Official Senate bio:

Prior to his entry into public service, Senator Sotto was a well-known composer, actor and musical artist. He was a prime mover in the irreversible trend toward the popularity of the Filipino singers and local compositions during the 1970's and the 1980's when he was the Vice-President for production of the Vicor Group of Companies. Among his popular compositions is the song Magkaisa, considered the anthem of the 1986 People Power Revolution. 

Pretty much the whole article was like this, but with the order and formatting changed slightly to fit Wikipedia's formatting.

Additionally, the whole tone of the thing violated Wikipedia's policy of presenting articles from a neutral point of view, it included such unabashedly biased gems like:

• "A pragmatic nationalist who envisions a country free from the dictates of violence and internal threats, Senator Sotto voted for..."
• "The two books clearly revealed the visionary character of Senator Sotto an his sincere desire to have a better Philippines for the future generation."
• "His genuine concern for the welfare of the Filipino youth expanded the horizon of Senator Sotto when he..."

The plagiarized content covered his Senate career, his term as vice mayor of Quezon City, his entertainment career, his educational background, and even his birth. In fact, as of yesterday the only original content on the page was a few sentences about Sotto's failed 2007 senatorial run, his appointment to the Dangerous Drug Board, his 2010 election win, and a huge section about the plagiarism scandal. (The plagiarism section as it currently exists is way too long, but that's beside the point.)

The page view statistics tell that the article was viewed over 11,000 times in the past 30 days. It pains me to think how many people came to Wikipedia for information and had to deal with this mess over the last two years.

Being the helpful citizen of Wikipedia that I am, I took it upon myself and scrapped all the offending content, replacing it with the basic sentences to start it anew as a responsibly written article-- with encyclopedic tone and inline citations, based on verifiable sources but using original wording (a concept apparently unknown to Sotto and his staff). See the article as it is now, and feel free to edit away.

Now, just to be clear, I don't want to jump to conclusions and accuse someone in Sotto's circles to be the ones turning his Wikipedia article into a public relations tool or campaign vehicle. The Wikipedia user that added the pasted content is named Democraticsystem, and the only information available about him is his contributions, showing he mainly edits articles on politicians and hasn't been very active in the past year.

There's no evidence linking him to Sotto personally, but wouldn't that be something poetic...

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - June 2012

Here's an update to the post I made last year, showing the extent of high-resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth/Maps. Areas in red have high-res coverage.

I started work on this hoping to see some real progression over the past year, but it was actually a bit disappointing to find that there wasn't a whole lot of additional area that was covered. A lot of the updates recently are just newer satellite imagery for places that already had coverage. Anyway, most of the important stuff is covered, including the top 70 most populous cities in this country. That's every city with a population above 160,000.

Still not covered are the tourism hotspots of Boracay and Panglao. Something to hope for.

Transfer Passengers, Delayed Flights, and Running Through NAIA-3

Once upon a time, Cebu Pacific proudly advertised that their flights were 95% on time. Can't remember if that was the right figure exactly, but the point is that punctuality was their strong point. Not that it should matter much-- It's a wonder at all the humans can travel through the clouds at 800 km/h, so who cares about a delay of a few minutes, right? Yet, things always seem to go wrong when it matters the most.

Getting from Dumaguete to Puerto Princesa via Manila with Cebu Pacific was my first time to have to transfer to a connecting flight within the Philippines. I'm not even sure if I'm using the right terminology, that's how rare it is. Before this it has always been a straight trip from source to destination. And when traveling in the Philippines, one of those is almost always Manila.

Dumaguete to Manila

The time between the scheduled arrival of our first flight and the scheduled departure of our second flight was only 55 minutes, so it was with some trepidation that we boarded the plane in Dumaguete well after it was supposed to have taken off.

Already late, it was even more concerning when the plane flew north past the airport and circled Metro Manila seemingly aimlessly. I continued peering out the window as the plane wandered above Commonwealth Avenue and the Batasan complex, then around the grassy hills of Rizal, then the fish pens of Laguna de Bay. For some reason. A plane from Dumaguete to Manila has no business flying above the northern part of Metro Manila. The pilot hadn't announced anything, and he never did.

Airport dash

When we actually landed and got into Manila's NAIA Terminal 3, it was already a few minutes beyond the scheduled boarding time for Puerto Princesa. Adding to the troubles, it seems that the NAIA-3's infrastructure for transfer passengers to get straight back to the pre-departure area was under construction or something, so we had to go the long way-- pretty much just like normal passengers, except without lining up for check-in.

We climbed up the broken escalator, ran past the broken walkalators, up more non-functioning escalators to the check-in area, then through the maze of security checks and bureaucracy. I even had to pay the terminal fee. It's 200 pesos per person to briefly run through an airport terminal that is neither our starting point nor final destination? I was too much in a hurry to be frazzled by the injustice of it. Luckily a kind (or apathetic) soul let me cut to the front of the x-ray machine line when I told him I was already late for my flight.

Finally, out of breath, we reach the fathest end of the most inaccessible gate, and the dude tells us that the flight to Puerto Princesa is delayed. Boarding isn't for another 40 minutes. Heh.

Manila to Puerto Princesa

The delays did not stop there. Even after boarding the plane late, it just sat there on the runway for 20 minutes. I fell asleep, then woke up, and we still had not moved. The scheduled arrival time had already come and gone by the time the plane got to the air. To the pilot's credit, he did regularly give updates of the situation (something about the weather) to the passengers and apologize for the delay.

In the end the plane arrived in Puerto Princesa at 1:45pm, around 1 hour and 15 minutes behind schedule. Yes I did travel over 1200 km in hardly half a day to get to where I was going. But the minutes do seem longer when they're part of a lost hour of the only honeymoon I'll ever have.

Getting a Cebu Pacific Ticket for Palawan

Choosing a honeymoon destination was something that came up on the agenda soon after getting engaged in April last year. In some ways it seemed like more of a thing to look forward to than the actual wedding.

It should be somewhere new and exciting, as me and my then-fiancee are both game for adventure. But also somewhere relaxing to unwind after what surely would be an hectic run-up to a big wedding.

Singapore was an early contender, as we've both never been there before. And it seems like a trip to Singapore is just something people do at our age when they have the energy and the money. But going abroad seems to have its risks, and puts too much pressure on me to see all the sights in a short period of time.

Eventually we settled on Palawan, with its reputation of being the Philippines' final frontier, and its untamed but pristine beaches providing the right mix of excitement and relaxation we were looking for.

Booking a cheap Cebu Pacific ticket

Way back in August 2010, long before we had started to draft a honeymoon itinerary (or even begin to think about it seriously), Loren excitedly contacted me saying that there was yet another Cebu Pacific dirt-cheap ticket sales.

I have no idea how Cebu Pacific is able to sell plane tickets so cheaply. You can look at the payment breakdown on the emailed ticket-- at the most extreme, they pretty much get no revenue from this. They basically give out a limited number of these seats for free, to whoever can race their way through the online booking system fastest.

Now, me, I'm always wary of these promos. Booking tickets that far in advance has often not worked out well for me as plans change, and the cost of rebooking a ticket is usually ridiculous. But it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement when you realize what a bargain it could be. Also, these are seats in demand-- spend too much time thinking about it and you lose your chance.

So, with no research about our destination whatsoever, we decided we could go to Palawan on a Monday morning (two days after our wedding), spend four nights there, and return to Manila on Friday afternoon.

Boom. Five minutes later we have a round trip ticket from Manila to Puerto Princesa for P750 ($17.50)-- for TWO PEOPLE. Cheaper than dirt.

Booking the expensive Cebu Pacific ticket

Fast forward to April 2011, when we actually start to think about what we're going to be doing with our time in Palawan. The capital, Puerto Princesa, is the definitive entry point on the island, but all the reviews say that the real highlight is in El Nido, a grueling 8 hour bus ride away to the north. Our new plan is for 3 nights in Puerto Princesa, and 3 nights in El Nido. It is clear that the originally planned return trip ticket is unusable.

But our ticket actually going to Palawan is still good, right? Well. No. The thing is, although our Palawan trip would still be starting on that day and would require flying from Manila to Puerto Princesa, we're actually coming from Dumaguete. The original idea was that we would buy a Dumaguete-Manila ticket separately, but as it turns out, the gap in time between the arrival of the scheduled Dumaguete-Manila flight and the departure of the Manila-Puerto Princesa flight is just 50 minutes-- not enough time to get to the check-in counter.

After a frustrating call to Cebu Pacific's customer service representative, I was resigned to the fact that the only way to do this would be to buy an all new ticket for Dumaguete-Manila-Puerto Princesa, and the original Manila-Puerto Princesa ticket was unusable as well.

The result

So much for the cheap Cebu Pacific promo fare. But you only get one honeymoon, right? This is as an appropriate time as any to bite the bullet. Total damage:

June 20: Dumaguete - Manila - Puerto Princesa (for 2)
PHP 11,027.52

June 26: Puerto Princesa - Manila (for 2)
PHP 6,639.36

Totally worth it.

7-Day Palawan Intinerary

Palawan is, I think, the most remarkable place I have been to in the Philippines. Puerto Princesa is such a peaceful and homey city, filled with pleasant people and things to do. And God seems to have let his imagination run wild when he made the stunning Bacuit Archipelago in El Nido, with its limestone cliffs rising dramatically out of the waters and hundreds of feet into the sky.

Sunset view from El Nido

Below is our glorious 7-day Palawan honeymoon itinerary-- Puerto Princesa City, Sabang, and El Nido. I was very pleased with the way it all turned out, allowing us to see almost all the highlights, with just enough rest time to keep our sanity.

Day 1 - Monday

8:00am - Check in at Dumaguete Airport
9:00am - Plane departure from Dumaguete Airport
10:00am - Plane arrival at Manila NAIA-3

12:30pm - Plane departure from Manila NAIA-3 (very delayed flight)
1:30pm - Plane arrival at Puerto Princesa Airport

2:00pm - Check in at Hibiscus Garden Inn
3:00pm - Lunch at Balinsasayaw Grill

4:15pm - Butterfly Garden
4:50pm - Baker's Hill
5:30pm - Mitra's Ranch

6:00pm - NCCC Mall

7:00pm - Dinner at Kalui
8:30pm - Back at Hibiscus Garden Inn

Day 2 - Tuesday

6:30am - Check out from Hibiscus Garden Inn
7:00am - Tricycle to the van terminal
7:30am - Van departure from Puerto Princesa
9:00am - Van arrival in Sabang

9:15am - Check in to Sheridan Beach Resort

11:00am - Boat to the Underground River place
12:00pm - Underground River tour
1:00pm - Start Monkey Trail / Jungle Trail
3:00pm - Arrival back at Sabang Beach
3:30pm - Lunch at Daluyon Resort
5:00pm - Back at Sheridan Resort - Rest time

8:00pm - Swimming at Sheridan Resort pool
9:30pm - Dinner at Sheridan Resort's restaurant

Day 3 - Wednesday

8:30am - Breakfast at Sheridan Resort

10:00am - Mangrove paddle boat tour
11:30am - More picture taking and swimming at Sheridan Resort

1:30pm - Check out from Sheridan Resort (late check out requested)
2:00pm - Van departure from Sabang
3:30pm - Van arrival in Puerto Princesa
4:00pm - Check in again at Hibiscus Garden Inn

4:15pm - Lunch at Jollibee
4:45pm - Puerto Princesa Baywalk
5:15pm - Unitop
6:00pm - Palawan Provincial Capitol / Baragatan

7:30pm - Dinner at Kinabuchs
8:30pm - Back at Hibiscus Garden Inn

Day 4 - Thursday

7:00am - Van pickup at Hibiscus Garden Inn
8:00am - Van actual departure from Puerto Princesa
2:00pm - Van arrival at El Nido Airport (drop off at airport was requested)

5:00pm - Boat departure for El Nido Lagen Island Resort
6:00pm - Arrival and check in at Lagen Island Resort

7:30pm - Buffet dinner at Lagen Island Resort
8:30pm - Cultural show

Day 5 - Friday

7:30am - Buffet breakfast at Lagen Island Resort
9:00am - Boat departure for island hopping tour

9:20am - Pinasil Island - Cathedral Cave picture taking
9:45am - Cudugnon Cave on Palawan mainland
10:40am - Vigan Island (Snake Island)
12:15pm - Picnic lunch and picture taking at Entalula Island
2:30pm - Miniloc Island - Big Lagoon tour
3:00pm - Miniloc Island - Small Lagoon kayaking
4:00pm - Snorkeling near Miniloc Island

5:00pm - Arrival back at Lagen Island Resort
5:15pm - Swimming at Lagan Island Resort pool
7:30pm - Buffet dinner at Lagen Island Resort

Day 6 - Saturday

7:00am - Boat departure for more adventures
7:45am - Buffet lunch at Miniloc Island Resort
9:20am - Dibuluan Island - Picture taking, swimming, catamaran ride
11:30pm - Back in Lagen Island Resort

11:45am - Swimming in pool
12:30pm - Buffet lunch

2:00pm - Check out from Lagen Island Resort
3:00pm - Boat departure from Lagen Island
3:45pm - Boat arrival at El Nido Airport; Tricycle to El Nido town
5:00pm - Check in at Rosanna Cottages
5:30pm - Walk through town; Pasalubong shopping
6:30pm - Dinner at Sea Slugs

Day 7 - Sunday

7:00am - Van departure from El Nido
12:30pm - Van arrival in Puerto Princesa

1:30pm - Crocodile Farm tour
2:30pm - Pasalubong shopping at Tiangge Tiangge
3:00pm - Late lunch at Chowking

4:30pm - Check in at Puerto Princesa Airport
5:30pm - Plane departure from Puerto Princesa Airport
6:30pm - Plane arrival at Manila NAIA-3

The Pacquiao-Mosley Effect on Wikipedia

I actually didn't even watch the Pacquiao-Mosley fight on the day itself-- first time I missed a Pacquiao fight in at least five years.

Anyway, here are a bunch of interesting graphs showing the spike in Wikipedia page views for the articles related to the fight. All of these graphs are from the Wikipedia article traffic statistics tool by Henrik.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley - The main article for the fight got 62k views on the big day.

Manny Pacquiao - Pacquiao got 260k hits. His Wikipedia article, I mean. The man himself took significantly less hits that day.

Shane Mosley - Mosley's article got 122k views, less than half that of Pacquiao.

Boxing - Even the article for the sport of boxing itself received 3x the usual number of page views.

Sarangani - The province where Pacquiao serves as congressman got around 10x the normal number of page views.

General Santos City - Pacquiao's home town. He's no longer introduced as being from General Santos, but the page still got around 6x the usual number of views.

Mama Said Knock You Out - Shane Mosley's entrance song got over 3x the usual number of page views that day.

Eye of the Tiger - Manny Pacquiao's entrance song got 10x the usual number of page views.

Survivor (band) - The band that made "Eye of the Tiger" a hit in 1982 also got around 10x the usual number of page views.

Jimi Jamison - The lead singer of Survivor from 1984-1989 and 2000-2006 performed "Eye of the Tiger" and walked with Pacquiao as he entered the arena. He went from virtually unknown to getting 10k views that day, a 100x increase.

Lupang Hinirang - Even the Philippine national anthem got 5x the usual number of views that day.

Jimmy Lennon Jr. - Showtime's ring announcer for the fight got a massive increase in page views.

Michael Buffer - HBO's usual ring announcer was not a participant in this fight at all, but still got 7x his usual number of page views, probably from people wondering what happened to him.

Antonio Margarito - Pacquiao's last opponent got 10x the usual number of views on fight day.

Juan Manuel Marquez - Pacquiao's old nemesis and likely next opponent.

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - April 2011

Here's a map of the high-resolution satellite imagery of the Philippines that's available on Google Earth as of April 2011. Areas in red have high-res coverage.

Some background-- seav made some maps like this before, but it's been a few years and I felt like seeing what the coverage looks like today.

Compare this with what the coverage looked like in June 2006 or March 2007.

Note, in Google Earth you can more clearly see which areas are available in high-resolution by clicking the historical imagery button.

The top 40 most populous cities and municipalities in the Philippines all have high-res coverage. The largest uncovered cities are poor Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija (rank 44, population 259,267), Marawi in Lanao del Sur (rank 67, population 177,391), and Valencia City in Bukidnon (rank 71, population 162,745).

Also notably lacking high-res coverage are the tourist spots of Boracay and Panglao/Tagbilaran.

Still, 54.7% of the Philippines' total land area is covered, including 65.9% on the island of Luzon. That's more than half! What a glorious age we live in.

Law, Justice, Crime, Punishment

As I write this, three Filipino drug traffickers-- tried,convicted and sentenced to death-- are relishing the last hours of their life in a Chinese prison. By the time I get around to posting this they very well may be dead.

A trip to China by Vice President Binay bought them some time, but China's justice system has proved as impenetrable as their government. Let's face the facts, if we want them to respect our law we'll need to respect theirs. Honestly, the Vice President has just as much business going to China to plead for them as he does going to our local jails and begging the wardens to free the prisoners. I don't believe in the death penalty, but I do believe in the rule of law.

Today's newspaper headline is "Nation on bended knee". There is this horrible tendency of Filipinos to overlook the fact that a person is a convicted criminal whenever the conviction is in another country. Like that time two years ago when a different Vice President successfully won freedom for the confessed killer of a 6-year old boy. I can't help but feel that the moments of silence, prayers, and vigils should go to the innocent.

In a related story, Senator Ping Lacson has finally returned to the Philippines from his life as a fugitive on murder charges, successfully escaping an international manhunt. While the charges against Lacson have been dropped, the Justice Department is supposedly pursuing the people who helped Lacson evade capture.

Tell me, what exactly is the point of going after the coddlers if you're going to completely let go of Lacson himself? If anyone is responsible for the millions of pesos and millions of manhours utterly wasted on trying to find him, shouldn't it be the fugitive himself? It should not matter that he is no longer officially a murder suspect. When Senator Lacson fled the country over a year ago, he wasn't merely eluding captivity by the police, he was betraying the very system of laws and government that he swore to uphold when he took his oath of office. And now he has returned to the country to continue being a member of congress and making a mockery of the rule of law.

Meanwhile, Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson serves his own time in a Hong Kong prison for drug possession. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and shortly thereafter resigned from his position in Congress amid talk that the House of Representatives would vote to expel him. But really, why demonize Singson but tolerate Lacson? At least he cooperated. He didn't waste anyone's time. He plead guilty and accepted his punishment. Yet not once did I hear a suggestion of expelling Lacson from the Senate for his abandonment.

Then there's Antonio Trillanes. If you're still on his side then there's simply no reasoning with you. He and his cohorts abandoned the chain of command and took hostage a luxury apartment tower. When given his day in court four years later he stormed out and seiged a luxury hotel, causing more chaos. Fast forward just three years, a new president comes to power and lets these characters go scot free barely a month before the court is scheduled to render judgement upon them.

I haven't even mentioned Estrada yet, who finished second place in the presidential election less than three years after being found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of plunder. God help us.

Lacson, Singson, Trillanes, Estrada, Webb, and those three drug traffickers in China-- somehow I get the feeling that there's a connection in the way the Philippines' methods and priorities in terms of justice are all utterly backwards. There's definitely something wrong here at a very basic level.

Before and After: NLEX-C5 Interchange

Here's another stunning before-and-after find in Google Earth. This is located somewhere in northern Metro Manila, at the under construction interchange of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and C5 road.

Check it out in Google Maps. The map layer overlay still shows where the old roads used to be.

It's practically a whole village wiped out. The history of satellite imagery shows that a lot of the houses here have been existing since at least 2001. This must be one of those things I hear on the news about people causing a riot over their homes being demolished. Hard to blame them.

Dumaguete in 2005 and 2010

Dumaguete City's satellite imagery has finally been given an update in Google Maps and Earth, jumping from February 2005 to June 2010. Here's a collection of the more significant changes I noticed, just as I did for Cebu a few months ago.

Dumaguete Business Park

The huge chunk of barren land practically adjacent to downtown and formerly owned by Julio Sy, now transformed into Robinsons Place Dumaguete and the Teletech call center office-- the beginnings of Dumaguete Business Park, hopefully launching the city into a glorious future.

Port

There's a land reclamation project going on at the port area, which I actually haven't been much aware of, but it has added a large bit of area to the seaport. Also, there's a new passenger terminal.

Convention Center and Oval

Previously a dusty old track oval known as the Perdices Coliseum. Now features a nice rubberized track with the Negros Oriental Hotel and Convention Center surrounding it.

Airport

The airport runway has been widened by around 10 meters and equipped with lights for night landings. There also seems to be little hangar for small aircraft now.

Diversion Road

The diversion road (or circumferencial road) is a project that's been talked about forever. Supposed to connect Sibulan to Bacong without passing through the congestion of Dumaguete, it finally seems to have gotten off the ground a little bit. A roughly 900 meter stretch of road has been cleared so far, with a width of 20 meters.

Noynoy in the Hot Seat

There's some kind of poetic symmetry to be pointed out here, with President Noynoy Aquino lamenting the people that have nothing better to do that criticize the government blindly:

Aquino appeals for unity

DAVAO DEL NORTE, Philippines – President Aquino called for unity here on Thursday, saying it was important to the country’s development. [...]

But the President lamented that instead of helping the government in solving the country’s problems, some quarters were making an issue about just anything.

"May mga tao lang po talaga na ayaw yata ng kaunlaran at lahat ng ginagawa natin ay pinupuna (There are people who do not seem to want progress, they criticize our every move)," he said.

To be fair, he's absolutely right. As I've said time and time again, the culture of cynicism in this country too often goes far beyond mere patriotic opposition-- it's damaging to the country's long term growth.

Problem is that Aquino's campaign for president was centered around positioning himself as the epitome of the type of person he is now criticizing. Despite the attempts to portray himself as the new Obama, he didn't reach the top by being a uniter. He did it by driving a wedge into the country's divisions, and claiming the biggest piece as his own.

And now, to expect anything different from his own critics? Well. Good luck with that.

Time to Mourn

I, BENIGNO S. AQUINO III, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby proclaim August 25, 2010 as a day of national mourning, in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong and the bereaved families of the slain.

A time to mourn, ok, great. But my complaint here is why do we declare a national day of mourning and lower all our flags now, when 8 Hong Kong people die, but do nothing for all the other times a bunch of Filipinos die?

• 5 soldiers killed by rebels in Agusan del Sur the same day (link)

• 9 police officers killed by the NPA in Samar on Monday (link)

• 39 passengers killed in a Benguet bus crash last week (link)

Their deaths may not have been broadcast on live TV in prime time, but that doesn't diminish the significance of the loss of life.

Are they any less deserving of our sympathy? Or are Filipino lives simply not worth as much to the government of the Philippines?

Bus Drama

Now, about this Rolando Mendoza guy.

Show him no mercy, make no attempt to romanticize his story, do not paint him as a martyr. No one who hijacks a busload of innocent people and sprays them with bullets deserves a good word in their eulogy. He's an embarassment to the Filipino people, and the whole human race for that matter. I was so pleased to hear that his journey ended with a sniper's bullet straight through the head.

Make no mistake, this story's ending was tragic, and the reports in the coming days will shed light on what really happened that day and what should have been done better. But personally I'd prefer we don't belittle the heroism and courage of the men who risked their lives to save 17 of the 25 passengers on that bus.

Philippine Senate Batch of 2004, Where Are They Now?

A look back at what happened to the Philippine Senators elected in 2004, whose terms end on June 30, 2010:


Reelected to the Senate this year are Juan Ponce Enrile, Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Richard Gordon and Jamby Madrigal both lost in their bid to become President, and Mar Roxas has apparently lost his bid for Vice President.

Senior citizens Aquilino Pimentel and Rodolfo Biazon both had their proxy candidates who lost in their campaign for the Senate (daughter Gwen Pimentel and son Ruffy Biazon).

And it took Alfredo Lim just 3 years to get tired of the Senate. He was elected Mayor of Manila back in 2007.

Philippine Senate, Batch of 2010

A look at the names that the people of the Philippines chose on Monday to comprise half of the Senate:

The Facebook Campaign, Pt. 2

Now that the election is over, here's a look back at the growth in Facebook fans of the Philippine presidential candidates since the start of the year. (See my previous post, from back in February)

Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar kept a surprisingly tight race going for most of this graph, with Aquino leading by just around 40,000 fans-- until around April, when the anti-Villar propaganda began to pile up and Aquino began to pull away. The lead widened to 100,000 in late April, then something weird happened to Noynoy's fan page (his official site described it as a technical and security issue), rendering it mostly inaccessible. This allowed Villar to take the lead just days before the election.

Gibo Teodoro placed a valiant third. The others, by comparison, are hardly worth mentioning.

It's interesting to note that Erap Estrada, though ranking a shockingly strong second place in the actual election, is a very distant 6th place on Facebook. I don't have a single friend that supports him.